Yuuka Kazami
“It’ll just be lovely to see people getting hurt.” General Information Yuuka Kazami is a long-lived youkai called the "Flower Master of the Four Seasons" whose main place of activity is the Garden of the Sun, a field completely covered in sunflowers. She loves seasonal flowers, so throughout the year she moves to the respective places where the flowers grow: spring flowers for spring, summer flowers for summer, autumn flowers for autumn and sometimes winter flowers for winter. Yuuka made her first ever appearance in the fourth PC-98 Touhou Project game Lotus Land Story as both the fifth stage bossand the final boss. She then appeared as a playable character in Mystic Square. Afterwards, she reappeared as a playable character in the ninth work Phantasmagoria of Flower View. Additionally, she has made a guest appearance as an unlockable character in the Seihou Project's second game, Kioh Gyoku. Yuuka is a caretaker of flowers of all seasons, likened to a force of nature holding tremendous power. She is presumed to be very old given her demeanor and knowledge of the causes behind the Great Barrier Incident of Sixty Years. Her main place of activity is the Garden of the Sun. She used to reside in Mugenkan, the mansion at the boundary between Gensokyo and the Fantasy World, guarded by two gatekeepers - Elly and possibly Kurumi. Personality Yuuka is a troublesome and playful youkai. She holds strength in high regard and likes to look down on and toy with those weaker than her. She's sharp-witted and thoroughly enjoys rubbing people the wrong way through various methods, ranging from simply joking around with her opponent to (falsely) claiming credit for causing an incident. Her Perfect Memento in Strict Sense article states her threat level as "very high" and her human friendship level as the "worst". However, she also tends to visit the Human Village and comes off as fairly polite, in addition to often appearing at the Hakurei Shrine on peaceful terms (like in her Phantasmagoria of Flower View ''ending, for example), meaning this could possibly be an exaggeration. Yuuka is shown to be rather dormant due to her age - in ''Lotus Land Story, rather than directly participating in the incident she caused, she simply goes to sleep as if ignoring it. In the Windows series, this is further reinforced - she doesn't move from the Garden of the Sun nearly at all, and thus usually doesn't actively seek opponents. However, there are exceptions to this when something catches her eye, as shown in her excursions in Mystic Square and Phantasmagoria of Flower View. She’s been shown to have a vast knowledge of flowers, as well as all of life itself. Abilities Yuuka is said to be impressively strong. She is stated to be one of the strongest youkai in the victinity of the Hakurei Shrine in Mystic Square. Her Perfect Memento in Strict Sense article says that she has extremely high power and physical abilities, which she uses to mercilessly eliminate any disturbances. She is also compared to a manifestation of nature, akin to a Fairy, albeit far stronger. Out-of-universe, ZUN has also stated her to be a very strong boss. Additionally, while this can hardly be considered a display of strength, she is not always shown to take damage after a battle when encountered as a boss in Phantasmagoria of Flower View - Mystia Lorelei and Cirno, rather than actually defeating her after technically "winning" in their own scenarios, escape from her instead. In Lyrica Prismriver's scenario, she is still shown unharmed, although Lyrica doesn't seem to escape and has a quite friendly conversation with her after the battle instead. Medicine and Komachi, however, apparently defeat her for good. Yuuka is capable of manipulating flowers - making them bloom, shifting the faces of sunflowers towards the sun, or making withered flowers bloom again. As implied in her title, she can use it for flowers of all seasons. This ability is considered to be more of a small addition to her physical abilities, but it can manifest in destructive ways - for example, she destroys the Hakurei Shrine using a giant flower in one of Lotus Land Story's endings. In Lotus Land Story, Yuuka is shown to be capable of turning into a ball of light, allowing her to move at a speed much higher than usual. She also teleports around the screen in most Stage 6 attacks. In the same game, Yuuka is capable of splitting herself into two. The clone doesn't appear to be independent, as it uses the same patterns as Yuuka, firing them simultaneously with her. Yuuka always has a parasol with her that's apparently the only flower in Gensokyo that never withers, but it's unclear if it can turn into a flower, actually is a flower, or if this is a mere metaphor. According to Rinnosuke, it is a special parasol capable of cutting ultraviolet rays, as well as blocking both rain and danmaku. Yuuka uses it to perform graceful attacks. Story Yuuka was the one behind the events of Lotus Land Story, where she sent youkai to destroy the Hakurei Shrinebecause she had "spare time". Since she was suddenly challenged to fight, she showed up with a pink dress and nightcap, accepting the challenge. Given how Reimu Hakurei started out at noon and Marisa Kirisame started out at night, it is unknown just at which hour the stage is meant to take place. She used sparkly bullets, as well as a giant laser, potentially being the inspiration for Marisa's Master Spark. Afterwards, when she was defeated, she ran off, only to be pursued into the sixth stage by the heroine, where she showed up with the appearance similar to her Windows outfit. Not affected at all by her sudden wake-up and fight, she once again fought with her opponent. After the two long battles, she was finally exterminated. Yuuka, being a Youkai that's been around for a long time, knew exactly what was happening when the flower incident started, but took time to realise it was 60 years ago the previous incident occurred. Of course being the youkai of flowers helped too, but unfortunately that also put her straight at the top of everyone's suspect list when they found her enjoying the flowers. She eventually encounters Eiki Shiki and gets lectured for living too long and teasing others. Eventually, they fight to prove who's the strongest, with Yuuka winning. In the multiverse, she was forced by Rin Satsuki to cause the Lotus Land Story ''incident again. This didn’t upset the balance like it was intended to, but it did cause a fair amount of chaos. Yuuka is one of three characters to participate in both of the first tournaments, with the other two being Iori and Hazama. She was brought along in the first by Yukari and Rachel, as a way to make their team look normal. It was soon revealed that they entered to thwart Goenitz’s plans, which they did by allowing Reimu, Hyde, and Minako to win so they could fight him. In the second, she originally joined to fight Sagume, but as the tournament went on, more and more things about the tournament went wrong, and Yuuka slowly befriended the angel. She was shown to be supportive of the angel, and being genuinely concerned for her in the second half when she shut down. After the arena was destroyed, Yuuka saved the unconscious Sagume, making them two out of the six Gensokians to survive. In the third tournament, Yuuka entered again, making her the only character to participate in all three tournaments. Relationships Reimu Hakurei and Marisa Kirisame It appears that Yuuka has known Reimu Hakurei and Marisa Kirisame before the events of ''Phantasmagoria of Flower View ''through meeting them during ''Lotus Land Story. She describes Marisa as "grown up quite a bit" and tells Reimu that she's "still being a poor shrine maiden". Yuuka was the one who sent youkai to destroy the Hakurei Shrine during Lotus Land Story. Marisa sees her as a "strange fellow". Elly and Kurumi In PC-98, Yuuka seems to have some kind of relationship with Elly, since she's the gatekeeper of Mugenkan. She’s also been shown to know Kurumi to an extent. Minako Arisato Yuuka allowed Minako to stay at her mansion. She’s been taking care of her, while Minako tries to help her out with her other problems. Sagume Kishin While Yuuka originally hated her for messing up her flowers, she slowly began to warm up to her. Yuuka provided company for Sagume during a majority of the second tournament, and saved the angel when everything fell apart. Hazama Yuuka has a lot of strange resemblances to Hazama and Yuuki, but she has barely interacted with Hazama, and never interacted with Yuuki. Yukari and Rachel Yuuka could be seen as a sort of accomplice of them, but they’ve only ever used her once. Despite just being used for her power, Yuuka enjoyed helping them.Category:Events Category:Final Boss Category:Villains